Disclaimer:
All Bible references are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise stated.
Sources of reference include Blue Letter Bible, E-Sword, Bible Gateway, and Answers in Genesis.
Very long a composition, but I do appreciate it if you could at least skim through the whole thing😅
In our secular life filled with twists and turns, we have no certain direction. Right or left? Up or down? If we try to use our mentalities and flesh to pave our own road, where will we end up? Filled with false assurance and hope, coupled with subtle temptations, do we go down the path which leads to sin? The familiar Bible passage of the Old Testament’s Genesis chapter three portrays the struggle between man and sin. It details the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden but also indicates that God’s forgiveness after we sin leads to an open pathway to Him. This demonstrates the faith that we can have in Jesus who still stretches out his arms to welcome us back to His road as seen in Genesis 3:1-19. While we desire to live a righteous life, life sometimes takes a turn for the worse, but we can learn from the account of Adam and Eve to keep us on track. Therefore, God uses Genesis 3:1-19 to show us that sinning just brings on consequences and separates us from God, but if we repent, Jesus will pave a Way.
Who wrote the book of Genesis, and where is the Garden of Eden located? Born around the estimated year of 1393 BCE, Moses authored the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy through the divine inspiration of God. Set in Mesopotamia, the Promised Land, and Egypt, Moses wrote Genesis around 1445 BC but before his death in 1405 BC. Evidence from New Testament verses and the knowledge that Moses was indeed literate, back up Moses’ authorship of Genesis. Written while the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, God wanted them to know more about Him and the origins of the world, as He prepared them to enter the Promised Land and differentiate the one true God from pagan idols. Present-day locations cannot determine an exact spot where the Garden of Eden could have existed, but Genesis 2:10-14
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.describes that the river which flowed out of Eden divided into four rivers. Two of the rivers, the Tigris, and the Euphrates, exist in modern-day times, but they do not correspond with the rest of the verse—there are no four rivers that meet. Thus, Bible scholars conclude that due to the movement of landmass, locations have changed, and the Tigris and the Euphrates may as well be entirely different from the ones in ancient eras.
Understanding chapter 3 from the perspective of Genesis, means that chapter 3 falls under the category of the “entrance of sin on earth,” which includes the account of Creation, the Fall, Cain and Abel, Noah’s Flood, and the Tower of Babel. The first five verses of Genesis 3 start with the temptations of the serpent Satan. However, Adam and Eve gave in to the temptation and ate the forbidden fruit as shown in verses 6 to 9. By maintaining his position as a just God, God has no choice but to confront the couple and ask for an explanation of their disobedience in verses 10 to 13. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve played the infamous blaming game in response to God’s confrontation. In verses 14 to 19, God lays down the curses towards Satan, Adam, and Eve, as consequences for their sins. Furthermore, Moses adds the prophecy of Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection, associating Genesis 3:1-19 to the Way that Jesus pans out for believers. While I did not wholly focus on the last five verses of Genesis 3, they elaborate on how even though God prevented mankind from accessing the Garden of Eden, He clothed Adam and Eve, preserving their dignity, and revealing His compassion and forgiveness towards His Creation. Again, we perceive that no matter how much we have sinned, as long as we repent, God loves us and desires to grant us redemption.
In the first few verses of Genesis 3, Moses mentions the serpent.
Genesis 3:1-5
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”Revelations 12:9 also affirms that the serpent is the devil and the deceiver of the world.
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.Satan deceived Eve “by his cunning”
2 Corinthians 11:3
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.as he specifically added the word “actually” into his probe to infer whether or not God really said this specific instruction—to not eat the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil or face death. Hence, Eve doubted God’s instructions and ended up twisting God’s Words in verse 2. When Eve twisted God’s Words, it could have been because of exaggeration or purposefully adding to His Words. Albeit, Eve’s mistake “was to set her sights on what God had commanded not to do rather than on what God had blessed them with”. Satan enticed Eve with his final and most powerful temptation in verse 5.
Much to the devil’s delight, just like how Eve desired to be like God (Genesis 3:6),
Genesis 3:6-8
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths .And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.James 1:14-15 says, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Eve was tempted by the serpent, gave in to what was “pleasant to the eyes” (King James Version), ate the fruit, and shared it with Adam. While the couple did not face immediate physical death after they had eaten the fruit, the Hebrew word for die, “mûth,” means to die literally or figuratively. They experienced immediate separation from God (spiritual death) and died physically years later (Genesis 5:5).
Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.But is Adam or Eve responsible for bringing sin into the world since they both had sinned? 1 Timothy 2:14 says that Eve was deceived by the serpent and was the one who fell into transgression.
and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.Despite that, Romans 5:12 shows that Adam, the leader in the couple, was the one who caused sin to enter the world. Nevertheless, both of them gave in to temptation, both of them sinned, and both of them received their respective consequences.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
The Hebrew word, “Qârâ’,” means to “call out” and “properly address by name”. God calls out for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in verse 9.
Genesis 3:9-13
But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”Adam replied to God in fear and reverence as seen from the Hebrew meaning of the word “afraid”. They felt ashamed and covered themselves with fig leaves (verse 7) before the holiness of God. We see that God remains an omniscient God and knew what Adam and Eve had done, showing how much more we must live a life pleasing to His eyes! Verse 12 starts the blaming game as Adam blames Eve for sharing the fruit with him, and Eve blames the serpent for tempting her. Adam clearly did what Job 31:33 expressed by denying his disobedience and concealing his sin.
if I have concealed my transgressions as others do by hiding my iniquity in my heart,He fails to give gratitude to God for providing him with a helper so that he will not be alone (Genesis 2:18).
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."Adam and Eve’s example relates closely to us. Instead of repenting, we frequently deny our sins, hoping that we will not receive the necessary consequences.
Genesis 3:14-16
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
The punishments of Satan’s deceiving are shown in verse 14. Moses chooses to use the Hebrew word of “Aw-rar’” which means “bitterly cursed,” to explain the gravity of the serpent’s curses. Now, the serpent will have to crawl on his belly, instead of moving like the other ordinary beasts; God compares the serpent to the beasts of the field which may prove that serpents had legs like the beasts of the field before the curse. The craftiest of the beasts becomes the most cursed one
Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made...and undergoes the humiliation of licking the dust and crawling on the ground.
Micah 7:17
they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God, and they shall be in fear of you.Verse 15 prophesies Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection. Through Jesus’ death, Satan won temporarily, bruising Jesus’ heel. But Hebrews 2:14 tells us that by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus broke the power of the devil, fulfilling the prophecy of Jesus bruising the serpent’s head.
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.Not only that, Revelation 20:10 which talks about how the devil, the deceiver, was thrown into the lake of fire to be tormented forever, ties back to verse 15.
and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.Subsequently, God also presents the consequences towards Eve (and the women after her) by granting her more pain in childbearing, more heartache in raising her children, and the spiritual authority that her husband will have over her.
Genesis 3:17-19
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."includes God reminding Adam of His instructions, as well as the consequences Adam has to face because of his sin. Man, starting with Adam, would have to work the ground to receive food: “in sorrow and toil you shall eat [the fruit] of it all the days of your life” (Amplified Bible). Furthermore, man requires extra effort in removing the thorns and thistles that grow around the plants. In verse 19, God reiterates that because of the Fall, everyone will face death and return to the dust that we were taken from. Through this, we remember that we are just dust and not at all greater than the God who we need to obey.
Psalm 103:14
For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.Repeatedly, we discover from the account of Adam, Eve, and Satan that the consequences of sin are not pleasant. In the end, God chased Adam and Eve out of the garden, with “the cherubim and a flaming sword” to prevent anyone else from entering the Garden of Eden. This signified the end of the perfect relationship between mankind and God. Only when Jesus died, and the curtain was torn in two
Matthew 27:51
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.did mankind finally have a restored relationship with their Maker through the Way that Jesus made.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
So, right or left? Up or down? Do we use our mentalities and flesh to pave our own road? Do we go down the path which leads to sin? Genesis 3:1-19 answers these questions for us. Before I started my study, my main goal was to learn more about the curses, the blaming games, and the temptations to apply the important truths that come out from them into my life. I gained much from my journey through this passage as the detailed examples of sin and the consequences it brings glare at me. Firstly, the Holy Spirit has taught me that sin breaks the relationship between mankind and God, and the consequences of sin are undesirable. Although the world promotes disobedience as flashy conduct, the Bible tells us that obedience is always worth it. As such, I need to strive to do the right thing to make godly choices. However forgiving God is, I should never take His forgiveness for granted. But I am grateful that I have a Father who cares and gives me a second chance by leading me towards His Son so that I may walk on the right path. Through God, I can have faith that God forgives my disobedience. In Jesus, opportunity comes knocking at my door for me to restore my relationship with my Savior. With Christ, I have the confidence in following the paved-out Way towards our good Lord.
It has been a long read, and I apologize because of that. However, I thank you for reading all the way to the end of this blog post. The key truths discussed in the Bible Passage Composition above were not easy to digest and to carry on reading when you could just exit the tab, brings much encouragement to my weary soul.
Now, you might wonder why in the world I am still rambling on here. Answer is, I believe that it is beneficial for you all to understand the context behind me penning down my study on Genesis 3:1-19. "Normal" people do not do this unless they are a Pastor, theological nerd, and you get what I mean. Frankly speaking, school forced me to do this. To fulfill my minimum number of credits for the school year, being part of a Christian school, it was required that I attend a Bible class. The Bible class that I attended taught us the fundamentals of dissecting a Bible passage of our choosing. Thinking that this Genesis passage was incredibly hilarious, I started my study with slight reluctance, but am now proud to announce that I did not regret this study one bit. With gratitude towards the Holy Spirit for guiding me throughout the 12 weeks of researching and understanding more of God's Word, I was able to write an essay-style summary of my study, which you hopefully have just finished reading.
You may or may not believe it, but I actually enjoyed this whole process, and now, cruising my way through my 3 long (Covid-filled) months of summer break, I hope to be able to find another passage to study once more!